From the AP
WE DON’T WANT YOU TO STAY AWAY!
The start of every school year brings with it excitement for the possibilities it holds for every student to reach their potential. To this end in every classroom in the first weeks of school, teachers are building meaningful relationships with their students by getting to know them as individuals as well as identifying their strengths.
As educators we know that attending school every day is one of the keys to a student’s future success. And we know that a student’s connectedness to the school, their peers and their teachers, as well as their connection to the curriculum being delivered, is a key factor in sustaining consistent school attendance and engagement.
But to build relationships and experience and achieve success, a child has to first be at school. There is no safe number of days to be away. Every day counts in your child’s education. As a generalist primary teacher taking the roll of a morning, and even now when I visit classrooms, the first question I always ask is, “Do we have a full house?” And there is always that moment when you wait to hear it confirmed, sparking a reason to celebrate.
Please visit our Attendance Policy around expectations and processes for informing the school of any student absences. It is important that school absences are coded correctly so we can monitor and identify patterns or risk of growing disengagement. If you think about it, missing 5 days over a term means your child is missing one day of school a fortnight and should this pattern continue, one month of school every year.
Policies — Oakleigh Primary School & Kindergarten (oakleighps.vic.edu.au)
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
As discussed above, teachers are invested in getting to know their students. One of the features of finding out about each individual is also meeting and getting to know you, their parents and carers. This relationship is facilitated through our Getting to Know You meetings in Week 5 (starting 27th Feb) this term. These meetings are usually designed for parents/carers to share any information that is relevant to their child’s learning and health and wellbeing. It is also a chance for you to get to know your child’s teacher.
These meetings can often set the tone of communication for the rest of the year between home and school and we strongly recommend that you make every attempt to attend.
In Week 4 (20th Feb), a Compass event will be opened to invite all parents/career to make a time to meet with class teachers. Meetings will be 15 minutes long and will be held onsite. If you require more time, please contact your teacher directly to make alternative arrangements.
Bookings are to be made via Compass. If you require an interpreter, please contact your child's class teacher so arrangements can be made to conduct the meeting via telephone.
CHILD SAFTY Code of Conduct
The start of the school year is a timely reminder to revisit our School’s Child Safe Standards and Child Safety Code of Conduct. This policy sets out acceptable and no-acceptable behaviours of all adults who are working or visiting the school in child related work.
Child Safe Standards — Oakleigh Primary School & Kindergarten (oakleighps.vic.edu.au)
MOBILE PHONE POLICY
Several years ago, a Student Mobile Phone Policy was introduced for all primary and secondary school students in Victoria. This policy sets out the processes we have in place around securely storing students’ personal mobile phones or other devices that may have similar features during school hours. Should you wish to have a message passed onto your child during school hours, please contact the office. A copy of this policy can be found on our school website.
Policies — Oakleigh Primary School & Kindergarten (oakleighps.vic.edu.au)
And lastly welcome back. Please feel free to contact me if you or your child have any concerns over the year.
Bron
Welfare
bronwyn.orr@education.vic.gov.au
